Protesters rally across North Caucasus against Russian pension reforms

Demon­stra­tions were held in several North Caucasian cities on Sunday as part of a nation­wide protest against Russia’s upcoming pension reforms. Rallies in Cherkessk, Makhachkala, and Nalchik, the capitals of Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Daghestan, were organised by the regional branches of the Communist Party of Russia.

The pension reform bill passed its first reading in Russia’s lower house, the Duma, on 26 July. If adopted, the retire­ment age in Russia would gradually increase to 63 for women, up from 55, and 65 for men, up from 60. The second reading of this bill is planned for Autumn. Following backlash against the changes, on 29 August, President Vladimir Putin announced that the reforms would be softened, with the retire­ment age for women going up to only 60.

This was the second nation­wide protest over the reforms, after demon­stra­tions were held in dozens of cities on 28 July.

‘Pension genocide’

A gathering of more than 600 people in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, was addressed by local Communist Party chair Boris Pashtov. Pashtov railed against priv­i­leges for state cor­po­ra­tions, the lack of a pro­gres­sive taxation on bil­lion­aires, and increases in value-added tax (VAT), excise duties, and other charges. He said the pension reforms could not be con­sid­ered sep­a­rate­ly from those issues.

Muradin Kardanov, first secretary of one local Communist Party branch, said Putin’s inter­ven­tion into the reforms had brought ‘only dis­ap­point­ment’ and failed to solve ‘any of the people’s problems’.

Aleksandr Androsov, another local Communist Party leader, read out a res­o­lu­tion stating that par­tic­i­pants of the rally supported working people and demanded a halt to ‘pension genocide’. ‘In the fight against arbi­trari­ness, we will go on until the end! Truth and justice are with us!’ he said.

One local Communist Party member, Alyona Chernova, told OC Media the author­i­ties had not created any obstacles to the protest in in Nalchik. According to her, the third protest will be held on 22 September.

However, a protester in the town of Prokhlad­ny, Kabardino-Balkaria, said ‘there were less people this time, because local author­i­ties for a long time did not give per­mis­sion to hold a rally’. ‘This tactic mis­in­formed the pop­u­la­tion’, they told OC Media.

Around 200 people gathered in Prokhlad­ny, and according to the protester, ‘each speaker signed a statement that they would not criticize the president or prime minister during their speeches’.

In Cherkessk, Karachay-Cherkessia, around 500 people gathered including rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the youth del­e­ga­tion from the city of Nevin­no­myssk, in neigh­bour­ing Stavropol Krai. Several local Communist Party leaders addressed the crowd, including MP from Karachay-Cherkessia’s par­lia­ment, Sergey Laskov. During the rally, 472 sig­na­tures were collected against the pension reform.

Calls for resignation

Two hundred people gathered in Makhachkala’s Lenin Komsomol Park, in Daghestan. Caucasian Knotquoted local Communist Party spokesper­son Ruslan Lugovoy as saying that the mayor’s office refused to give per­mis­sion for the action to be held in front of the Avarsky Theater, where such events usually take place.

Protest in Nalchik (Facebook)

Speakers at the event labelled President Putin’s changes to the draft pension reform ‘insignif­i­cant’ and called for the reforms to be dropped com­plete­ly.

‘These cosmetic amend­ments were intro­duced in order to calm the people’, Murzadin Avezov, a Communist Party MP from Daghestan’s par­lia­ment said. On behalf of the Communist Party of Daghestan and the whole of Russia, Avezov demanded the res­ig­na­tion of the gov­ern­ment of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Chairman of the Dagh­es­tani Committee of the Communist Party Makhmud Makhmudov called the pension reform ‘inhuman’.

No protest took place in North Ossetia against the pension reforms, according to one local resident, because of events mourning the anniver­sary of the Beslan tragedy.

However, according to Interfax news agency, on 27 August, North Ossetia’s Electoral Com­mis­sion reg­is­tered a local subgroup calling for a nation­wide ref­er­en­dum on the reforms. If such groups are reg­is­tered in at least 42 of Russia’s 85 federal subjects and the they collect at least two million sig­na­tures, a ref­er­en­dum must take place.

No protests were reported in Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The amend­ments to the pension reform proposed by Putin were supported by the heads of Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, and Daghestan.